Closings to begin at Trump Soho following Friday hotel opening

Closings will begin at the Trump Soho condo-hotel after the latest Trump Hotel Collection property is unveiled this Friday (note: correction appended), according to a hotel spokesperson. The 391-unit, 46-story building at 246 Spring Street is one of the largest condo-hotel properties to be built in the city in recent memory.

The project, which broke ground in 2007, was originally slated to open in fall 2009. The first downtown property in the Trump Hotel Collection, the Trump Organization’s line of luxury and boutique hotels, Trump Soho generated controversy during its construction when a concrete collapse caused one worker to fall to his death. A rocky economy and community opposition also led to delays.

Trump Soho is “creating a new category Downtown,” Donald Trump Jr., executive vice president with the Trump Organization, told The Real Deal at the project’s media preview last night (see slide show of the event above).

The hotel currently offers nightly room rates for as low as $389 per night, according to the hotel’s Web site, but Trump said that the rates will likely climb into the $500s by fall, as hotel begins “ramping up.”

But Alex Sapir of the Sapir Organization, developer of Trump Soho along with the Bayrock Group, said that executives there have already begun inching up rates.

“Last week you would have found [nightly room rates] to be lower than this week,” Sapir noted.

Sapir declined to comment on how many units have closed, but Trump said he’s optimistic that there will enough buzz to generate interest.

“We’re in a hip area, which helps us put heads in beds,” Trump said.

With additional reporting by Candace Taylor